OUR VIEW: Ground those planes

Sunday

Feb 5, 2017 at 6:00 AM

We all say things we don’t mean from time to time. Sometimes we even hit the send button.

We all say things we don’t mean from time to time. Sometimes we even hit the send button. NRC Team Lead Don Jackson’s December email detailing a host of safety concerns at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant was accidentally forwarded to one of Pilgrim’s staunchest critics, Diane Turco of the Cape Downwinders.

Now we all have a window into Jackson’s observations after a week of inspection at the plant. He said he culled data from all 20 inspectors when he wrote the email, which is disturbing at best, detailing equipment violations, management problems and a staff he said seemed overwhelmed just running the plant.

It was an email we weren’t supposed to read – a candid and scientific assessment of a 44-year-old nuclear power plant ranked among the three worst performers in the nation.

If only Jackson had become unreasonable or emotional during the NRC meeting Tuesday night when he and other NRC brass faced an audience of 300 at Hotel 1620. If only we could have imagined him tired and frazzled, penning an email with a little too much vigor, with a little too much hyperbole.

Sadly, this was not the case.

Jackson, who has 30 years experience in the industry, presented as reasonable, circumspect and calm in the face of fierce opposition. Some audience members accused the NRC of criminal behavior allowing the ailing plant to continue operating in spite of the myriad of issues. Jackson never flinched. He remained self-possessed, respectful and clear-headed – not at all the sort of person we could imagine throwing words around in an email, or leaping into exaggerations for effect. On the contrary, Jackson seemed like the sort of expert we want to be running things, the sort of scientific and objective person who gives us a sense of security, whose words might even count as gold. In short, Jackson’s behavior, demeanor and obvious expertise exhibited during the meeting only added weight to his words in that leaked email, causing us to revisit them.

Take a look:

“We are observing current indications of a safety culture problem that a bunch of talking probably won’t fix…. The dance associated with EDG operability this week is also disturbing on many levels – poor engineering expertise, no communication with the shift manager, poor original corrective action and a senior manager stating a reluctance to assure operability due to a negative impact on maintenance rule status.”

“We attempted to conduct a safety culture focus group with security and no one showed up because the security supervisor ‘forgot’ he needed to support it,” Jackson writes. “The plant seems overwhelmed just trying to run the station.”

“There is a lot of positive energy, but no one seems to know what to do with it, to improve performance, leading to procedural non compliances, poor maintenance, poor engineering practices and equipment reliability problems.”

Tuesday night, Jackson said some of the issues he cited in the email have since been resolved and other, new ones, have surfaced. He said there are 10 to 15 deficiencies at the plant that will keep it in the current status it is in – one step away from shutdown.

We think former Sen. Dan Wolf, from the Cape, said it best. He runs an airline and said he would ground planes if there were this many deficiencies. He said, if he had seen an email like this one about his company, he would be extremely concerned for the safety of customers and would resolve the deficiencies before he allowed anyone to fly in his planes.

Why is the NRC allowing Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to continue operating? In 2016, the plant experienced 18 problems and now we’re being told the NRC will allow this plant to refuel and continue operating in spite of 10 to 15 deficiencies, in spite of its own experts expressing serious concerns.

We have heard that money is involved, that the closure date of 2019 isn’t that far away. We have heard the “Oh, it’ll be alright” argument.

It’s not alright.

There is very little margin of error in a plane flying coast to coast – deficiencies can cause a plane crash, killing hundreds. The margin of error with a nuclear power plant should be even more minimal. A major incident can kill thousands and impact the five million people living in its shadow, not to mention the results of nuclear fallout years later.

We have a message for the NRC: “We are observing current indications of a safety culture problem that a bunch of talking probably won’t fix.”

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